Lecture by Clément BENELBAZ.
120 years after the adoption of the law on the Separation of Church and State, secularism is still being exploited, distorted and even misused.
Politicians and public figures frequently invoke the 1905 law or its spirit to advocate certain measures, or to oppose others, and ultimately dictate what secularism is or is not. And yet, their proposals are often the exact opposite, consisting in increasing the number of exceptions to the principle. In fact, what is sometimes advocated and presented in the name of laïcité does not correspond to the original laïcité, i.e. as it was conceived in 1905, which leads to considerable confusion.
The aim here is not to re-establish the truth about secularism, or to claim to have the truth; the idea is simply to encourage debate on this sensitive issue, and to dispel a number of preconceived and widespread ideas, by recalling, particularly from a historical point of view, what secularism consisted of as it was envisaged in 1905, by the legislator of the time, and by those who forged it.
Politicians and public figures frequently invoke the 1905 law or its spirit to advocate certain measures, or to oppose others, and ultimately dictate what secularism is or is not. And yet, their proposals are often the exact opposite, consisting in increasing the number of exceptions to the principle. In fact, what is sometimes advocated and presented in the name of laïcité does not correspond to the original laïcité, i.e. as it was conceived in 1905, which leads to considerable confusion.
The aim here is not to re-establish the truth about secularism, or to claim to have the truth; the idea is simply to encourage debate on this sensitive issue, and to dispel a number of preconceived and widespread ideas, by recalling, particularly from a historical point of view, what secularism consisted of as it was envisaged in 1905, by the legislator of the time, and by those who forged it.
